A Multitude of Celebrations (Tomorrow Is Another Day...)

A Multitude of Celebrations

Phew.

We survived the fun! Fun is such a joy, but it's downright exhausting at times, isn't it? Particularly when you're the self-elected president of your one-person introvert club.

The end of last week right on into the weekend was one exciting event after another.

We kicked things off with a celebration of candy, zombies, and Despicable Me minions (pop culture costume phenomenon of the year, don't you think?) with Halloween on Thursday. We went to Trunk or Treat on base with some friends and their adorable little girls, then came back home for a street party in Little America. We couldn't hang for too long as it was pretty chilly and Charlotte and Annabelle's fun-o-meter had about hit its limit, but it was a really great first Halloween. No melt downs and everyone kept their hat on--I call it a win!

Friday, we got ourselves all cleaned up and presentable and went to Colby's promotion ceremony where he finally got to pin on Major after finding out he'd been selected for the rank almost two years ago. It was a lovely, and more importantly, short, ceremony, and we followed it up with a party in the squadron, and later went to a schnapps distillery for dinner with some friends for some more celebration.

Saturday we spent the day cleaning, decorating, and doing food prep for... the girls' FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! Yep, on Sunday, November 3, 2013, they made the transition from infants to toddlers. I suppose they've been toddling for a while now, but I feel like it's pretty official now. I was actually awake, staring at the clock at 12:17 am, thinking about how exactly a year ago our lives were turned upside down, inside out and made epically more fantastic. Surreal.

We had a bunch of fabulous friends over on Sunday to help us celebrate, and it couldn't have gone better. The kids all seemed to have fun, and Charlotte and Annabelle were first birthday party champions. They went to town on their birthday cupcakes, played with their friends, and went an astoundingly long time maintaining a cheery disposition sans-nap.

As if that weren't enough excitement, last night, right after Colby got home from work, Annabelle took her first real steps. Both girls have been cruising around using their walker and the furniture for a while now, but last night, AnnaB took the couple of steps from the ottoman to the sofa without holding onto a thing. Colby and I sat in silent shock for a moment, then looked at each other and simultaneously shrieked, "DID YOU SEE THAT!?!"

Y'all, this parenting gig. It's pretty freaking stellar.